Spending Time With Friends is Good For the Soul

It’s easy to forget friendships when you are trying to keep up with work, family, relationships, and money. I know I have chosen to work over friends many of times. But what happens when you skip quality time with family and friends? Time passes by, you get older, and you lose experiences. This past weekend I celebrated Halloween with friends, and had a phenomenal time. We laughed while playing silly games, and I caught up with friends I hadn’t seen in a while. I, also, slept in and spend my morning with the hubby. This morning when I got up to start the work week, I made it out of bed early, and was happy going into work.

It’s actually why I have decided to stop babysitting as a side hustle. About two months ago, I debated whether side hustles where worth the time and effort. A lot of people were extremely positive and motivated me to continue side hustling. But the truth is, I don’t enjoy babysitting. I feel like the time I spend babysitting could easily be spent reading a book, relaxing, working on this blog, working out, spending time with friends, etc. It also has to do with compensation.

Well actually, it all has to do with compensation. Basically, the family I work for has an insurance plan that provides childcare expenses through an agency. My friend was moving away, and she passed down this family to me. I was getting paid through this agency to babysit. However, since the agency only pays $8/hr minus taxes, social security, and medicaid, I made an arrangement with the family that I would charge $10/hr from the money I get. The problem is: I’m not always available to babysit, and neither was my friend before me. So the mom would take the kids to daycare which charges $15/hr/kid and be compensated through this money. My friend had this arrangement with her. When I started working with this family, I figured this would only be like $400 at most in any case. I come to find out that she owes $4000 in childcare expenses, and I have to take it from the taxable compensation I get from the agency. I’m fine paying taxes when I’m keeping the money, but there’s no way I’m going to increase my taxable income and give the money away. So I have given her notice, and am walking away. It’s a little confusing, but believe me in the end it just wasn’t going to work out to my benefit. I’m not done with babysitting forever, but unless the family is willing to provide good compensation (cash $15/hour is the rate in my area) and advance notice; it will be in the back burner. Phew…long winded explanation.

I want to dedicate my time on hobbies/side hustles that I enjoy, am passionate about, or provide growth opportunities. I do think side hustles are worth it, especially when you are trying to earn additional income and pay down debt, but they should also make sense in your life.

I think side hustles always depend on the situation you find yourself in. Over a year ago, I was babysitting for this family and I absolutely could not stand the mother! She drove me crazy! The kids were fine… but we really needed the money so I suffered through it. When we finally got to a point where we were doing okay financially, I stopped babysitting for her. I’m much more particular about what I’m willing to do for a side hustle now…it doesn’t sound like you guys really need the money so I wouldn’t stress yourself out over it.

I think the only reason I stressed over it was not over money, but because I felt guilty. When I commit to something, I commit. But financially speaking I couldn’t continue.
I think the time I spent babysitting I could use to plan and control our expenses. We have been working so much, we have been ignoring how much we spend.

i don’t think you should feel too bad about choosing to have some time for yourself (to be with your friends) instead of babysitting for a few extra bucks.. yes, side hustling is great when you are in a financial bind.. but you need to make time to live a little bit as well..

Yup, I decided a couple of weeks ago that baby sitting was not worth it. I was concentrating so hard on making extra side hustle money, I would skip work outs to go babysitting. Let’s just say I have gained a couple of pounds. Now I have to work harder to lose the weight I gained. Sometimes it’s just not worth it.

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I am 22 year old "Gen Y" living in Dallas, Texas. I have my B.S. Global Business and M.S. Supply Chain, and I am currently working on my MBA. As I navigate the grown-up world, I am constantly trying to balance my life, career, and money.